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My Comment on "The Logic of a Bandit"

Liao Ran

PureInsight | August 29, 2005

[PureInsight.org] In our truth-clarification materials, we often use the following analogies to illustrate "The Logic of a Bandit." For example, when a bandit robs a man of his money, people in China often reprimand the victim for not concealing his money well instead of condemning the bandit. Take another example: when a man rapes a woman, people in China rarely condemn the rapist or sympathize with the victim. Instead, they usually question or criticize her virtue, e.g. "She must have done something to attract the rapist because the fly is attracted to crap." or "She had it coming when she chose to return home after work alone." These unfeeling criticisms illustrate "The Logic of a Bandit" prevailing in China.

Falun Gong practitioners are merely trying to become better people. The villains have been persecuting us, but a lot of people in China do not have any sympathy for our plight. Instead, they pass on such ill-founded judgments as "They had it coming when they went to Zhongnanhai (the Chinese Communist government's headquarter) to appeal for Falun Gong", "They deserve it because there are too many Falun Gong practitioners", and "You deserve it when you insist on practicing Falun Gong after the Chinese government has announced a ban on Falun Gong."

It is not until now that I realized that many Falun Gong practitioners from China have been overcome with "The Logic of a Bandit" for a long time. For a period of time, Falun Gong practitioners as a whole were stuck with the same mentality. When a fellow practitioner suffered from persecution, other practitioners did not condemn the villains. Instead, their first reaction was to criticize and complain the various attachments and inadequacies they saw in the persecuted practitioner. The first action fellow practitioners took was not to eliminate the demons from other dimensions that manipulated the villains to persecute the fellow practitioner. Instead, they would point their fingers at the persecuted practitioner. Let's think about it. Who are we trying to protect anyway? Weren't we protecting the demons from other dimensions when we executed "The Logic of a Bandit"? How could we have such twisted logic as the foundation of our philosophy? We were literarily acting like the defense attorney for the demons persecuting our fellow practitioner. Such evil logic has caused appalling interference with us as an entity. Even to this day, some practitioners continue to embrace "The Logic of a Bandit" without even realizing it is wrong.

Teacher said, "A cultivating human being is not a cultivating god, and everyone makes mistakes in the cultivation process; the key is how you deal with them." (From "My Version of a 'Stick Wake-up'")

Oftentimes when the evil beings from other dimensions exploit a fellow practitioner's attachments, we criticize, condemn, rub it in, talk condescend to, or even despise him. We are all cultivating human beings and we all make mistakes in the cultivation process. How could we treat our fellow practitioners, or anyone else, uncharitably? That cannot be a display of kindness. That cannot be an act of compassion. A person deserves everyone else's respect when he is trying to improve and to become a better person. It is such a precious aspiration. When he encounters difficulty or a tribulation, we should help him unconditionally. We all experience some particularly challenging tests in our cultivation practice. We all have some attachments that we have not eliminated. More importantly, all of us are Teacher's disciples. What right do we have to despise, look down at or ridicule our fellow practitioners? When we do so, aren't we discouraging them from improving themselves? Aren't we trying to defeat their will to continue their cultivation practice? Aren't we doing the work of the demons?

Our fellow practitioners are cultivating human beings.

Teacher said, "When one's Buddha-nature emerges, it will shake 'the world of ten directions.' Whoever sees it will come to give a hand and help this person out unconditionally." (From "Genuinely Guiding People toward High Levels" in Lecture One of Zhuan Falun)

The Fa requires us to help people unconditionally. That's what we are supposed to do!

Please do not take my words to the extreme. I am not saying that we must not point out fellow practitioners' attachments. The key is to have good intentions. Let's calm down and think about this issue for a moment. There is definitely something wrong with your mentality if you anxiously complain about or uncharitably criticize a fellow practitioner's attachments when he suffers from persecution. Do you think about criticizing his attachment first? Or do you think about eliminating the evil from other dimensions that caused the persecution first? There is a vast difference between justifying the evils' persecution and denying the evils' persecution with determination.